This invention relates to an improved scouring device.
When scouring pads are used without holders, they are often injurious to the hands and at best are uncomfortable; sometimes they cannot be securely grasped.
Some such pads seem to be incapable of being provided with holders, at least as a practical matter. Into this classification fall steel wool and cotton waste, both of which soon crumble away from any type of holder when they are subjected to even normal use. Attempts to provide satisfactory holders for pads of steel wool or cotton waste have been made by (1) Melniker (U.S. Pat. No. 1,653,652) with a flexible holder having various means for engaging the pad, none of which work for long; (2) Bell et al, with arcuate fingers in U.S. Pat. No. 3,105,989; (3) Meyer in U.S. Pat. No. 2,778,049 with transverse prongs or tines; and (4) Stark et al in U.S. Pat. No. 1,678,962, with a flat-headed nail. Many other attempts have been made.
Other types of pads can be used with holders, including the type shown in my earlier U.S. Pat. No. 3,060,478, where a woven wire pad is shown and others mentioned. These pads can be used with the present invention. The trouble in my earlier device has been that the handle shown in that patent, like the handle on metal brushes, renders it difficult to get into small spaces, limits the amount of force that can be applied, and tends to break off in face of excessive force.
Some devices have been placed on the market having reasonably good handles, but in these, where the scouring pad is satisfactory, the pad has been permanently secured to the handle so that once the pad itself wore out, the entire device had to be discarded, as have metal brushes when one end is worn down. This is, of course, very uneconomical, because the life of the scouring pad itself may be relatively short when compared to that of the handle, and although the handle may be not necessarily expensive, it is a waste to throw it away. Moreover, a better handle can be made and sold if the purchaser understands that its life extends far beyond the life of a single pad.
A corollary of the need for a better handle is the need for securing means which is adequate to such a handle and which can itself be relatively inexpensive.
Thus, among the objects of the invention are to provide an improved holder for a scouring device, to provide a scouring device by which the user can get a very good grasp for holding the device while scouring with considerable force and in small spaces, to enable the user to get a secure hand grip without having to hold on to the scouring pad itself, to enable the user to exert strong force almost directly through the scouring pad onto the object being scoured, to hold the pad (which must itself be suitable for holding) very securely to the handle, to provide a scouring device in which the pad can be reversed in the pad holder to use both sides of the pad, thereby getting twice as much use per pad, to provide a scouring device in which the pad holder can be used again and again by simply placing a new scouring pad into it and discarding a consumed scouring pad, and to provide such a renewal of pads that the device is economical to use over a long period of time.